Environmental Factors

Before fabricating and manufacturing a printed circuit board for PCB supplier china, it is often critical to assess the environments they are going to be used in. Aerospace applications, for instance, can push printed circuit boards to the limits, requiring specialized construction and AS9100D certification to function properly.  High temperature PCB design is intended to withstand glass transition temperatures greater than 170°C. Repeated high temperature environmental use can cut into the lifespan of printed circuit boards due to melting. When boards are not designed to work around high heat, components can be burnt and rendered nonfunctional. In these cases, boards cannot be repaired and must be replaced.

Heat isn’t the only thing that can damage printed circuit boards. Humidity can strongly influence board functionality during the assembly process, and conditions must be tightly regulated to ensure effective board design. Facilities must also be clean, as dust can disrupt signal transmission, leading to PCB malfunction.

Some more obvious forms of environmental damage to printed circuit boards is being submerged in water, lightning strikes, and electrical fires. Boards cannot be designed around these incidental environmental factors, and will need to be replaced.

Age

As a printed circuit board grows older, it may begin to malfunction. Components on a printed circuit board have a lifespan of their own, and once they have reached a certain age are more likely to fail. Resolving this may require replacement of individual parts, or in some cases, replacing the printed circuit board entirely.

Whether it is worth replacing a part or the entire board depends largely on two things: whether you have an expert available to diagnose issues with component parts on a board, and whether it is economically feasible to replace parts rather than the entire board. Aging components cannot be visually inspected in the way trace damage or burnt components are, meaning that an experienced technician skilled in board repairs is a requirement.

Poor Manufacturing

Manufacturing issues generally surface as bad soldering, connection issues, and loose components that haven’t been installed properly onto the board.

Mishandling

Physical damage to the board is another means by which PCB malfunction can occur. This happens most frequently when handling the board itself, rather than the shell it is contained within. However, this type of damage is also one of the easiest to fix. Caution should be taken, as inexperienced repair technicians can damage the board even further, requiring a complete replacement.